The effects of age at cochlear implantation and hearing aid trial on auditory performance of Chinese infants.

Conclusions: Most of the infants demonstrated rapid improvement in the three different auditory skills within the first year after switch-on. Infants undergoing hearing aid trial and habilitation demonstrated a significant positive effect on the development of auditory skills in comparison with infants without trial and habilitation.

Objective: This paper aims to evaluate the auditory performance of infants of different age at cochlear implantation, emphasize the importance of the hearing aid trial and habilitation before implant, and provide baseline data of auditory development.

Methods: In all, 259 infants with prelingually profound hearing loss participated in this study. The Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) was used to assess auditory skills in infants at different intervals.

Results: The mean scores for the auditory skills improved significantly over time. The mean scores of three skills for each group at each interval were significantly different. The mean scores of the auditory skills were significantly superior for infants undergoing hearing aid trial and habilitation in comparison with those of infants without hearing aid trial and habilitation.